German Coalition Agreement: No new beginning, no dynamism, no cohesion, just the same old mercantilism
The Grand Coalition Agreement between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian partner Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) is impressive alone due to its enormous volume. …

Carillion and the dead-end of privatisation of public service
The Carillion disaster takes place, and is part of, a larger background of almost unfathomable breakdown. It is now almost ten years ago since Lehman Brothers went under. The banks broke, governments stepped in, …

Germany’s metal workers’ union: Making a success out of failure
By Heiner Flassbeck and Michael Paetz (1)
Germany’s metal and engineering union, IG Metall, claimed to have scored a major success last week. A 4.3 percent pay rise sounds good if you demanded 6 percent with a lot of ballyhoo. …